TallGuyJohninBKK

We're talking here about what's generally called a "counter withdrawal" -- where you use your VISA or MC debit card with the bank's counter/teller instead of the ATM. The Thai banks generally SHOULD allow those, but it tends to be hit an miss in reality. Some staff will refuse and instead tell you to use their ATMs... The best you can do is try branch to branch. The Thai banks generally should not impose any flat rate or percentage fee for that kind of transaction... but I think one or two did begin charging fees for that... including SCB, I think. It's kind of like a cash advance using a credit card. Except, because it's a DEBIT card and it's already your own money in your checking account, your card's bank isn't going to charge any advance fees... However, if the card you're using charges any foreign currency conversion fees, like many do, those would still apply to a counter withdrawal transaction --the same as they would for an ATM withdrawal or POS purchase. What the counter withdrawal avoids is the 220b per withdrawal ATM fee that Thai ATMs charge against foreign cards.

That above is the only time I'll be exercising my newly restored emoticon expressions.... ????

The return of those "negative" emoticons, along with the protection/cover of providing anonymity, is an invitation to increased trolling.

Yes it was... and that's what let to it being removed... until now.

Trolling is the SAME person repeatedly targeting another member. It's NOT trolling if five different members each post a single laughing or confused emoticon on a particular member's various posts. Now, though, apparently, the targeted member has no way of knowing which kind of conduct is occurring.

Not when you don't know who's actually doing the trolling because, apparently, the use of the various emoticons will now be anonymous to the poster being commented on, and all other regular members of the forum. And, I think it's pretty clear in the past that most of the time, when emoticon trolling/stalking issues arose, it was because targeted member could see and know it was the same member doing it repeatedly to their posts....and thus could report it. But now... invisible except to the mods, who don't spend their days seeking out such things.

1. Being indoors with AC doesn't do anything to help with/reduce the issues of air pollution when it's bad. 2. if your child's school is a private one, then they're free to set their own health policies including regarding mask wearing, regardless of those set for government schools. Have you asked the school why they're requiring the kids to wear masks while at school?

Is anyone here actually surprised that a Thai national, in the aftermath of a serious traffic accident, ends up leaving the scene. Happens here all the time, based on the local news reports we are regaled with.

Such as, if you're living abroad like in Thailand, but are earning income from rental property back in the U.S. from a state with state income tax. Merely being expat living abroad by no means gives anyone an all-purpose pass on state tax liability.

So they actually managed to arrest THREE of the 17 fraudsters they supposedly were looking for... and the other 14 had managed to vanish! Wonder what the odds are that some of those got tipped off prior to the crackdown, perhaps by the same kinds of folks who were issuing them pay-off illegal visas in the first place. If Immigration was a professional baseball player, with a batting average like that, they'd be sitting on the bench!

Around my neighborhood in BKK, most Thais still are wearing face masks when close around other people, especially in indoors venues... And a lot of expats as well.... From what I'm seeing, it's the western tourists who are the most conspicuous in not wearing face masks these days, even in places like the BTS, where they're specifically being asked to wear them.

In all likelihood, the school kids were being told/asked to wear face masks because of the recent/current spate of very bad air pollution, which is a standard thing for schools when the air gets bad. It would be madness not to try to protect kids from air here lately that in many areas has ranged from unhealthy to hazardous.

Some of us were wearing N95 masks here in Thailand, seasonally, long before COVID came along because of PM2.5 air pollution. And will have reason to continue wearing them no matter what happens with COVID, at least until/unless the unlikely event of the Thai government getting serious about PM2.5 air pollution occurs.

As I said above, it's JD.com that's closing its Thailand business, not Shopee... See the following: China’s JD.com to officially exit Indonesia, Thailand 30 Jan 2023 "Chinese ecommerce major JD.com is officially closing shop in Thailand and Indonesia by March 3 and March 31, respectively. Both platforms will stop receiving orders by February 15. As such, JD.com urged its customers to use up or transfer the balance in their accounts and pay off any loans before the closing dates." https://www.techinasia.com/jdcom-exits-indonesia-thailand

I believe it's JD.com that's leaving Thailand, not Shopee....

Bangkok should consider itself lucky that the mess up north hasn't moved further southward as yet.... Note the areas of RED (unhealthy) and PURPLE (hazardous) air quality. https://aqicn.org/country/thailand/

In reading the full report, it's full of a lot of caveats and hypotheses... It's also a non-peer reviewed preprint study from 2020. But it would be interesting to know if the authors ever did the follow-up work they were discussing.

Air pollution is bad in China, and people with impaired respiratory systems due to chronic air pollution are likely at greater risk of negative COVID outcomes. But I'm not following your quoted comment above. I don't think air pollution levels themselves drive COVID particles to become more airborne than they otherwise would. And, AFAIK, "old people" who might never leave home tend to catch COVID from family members who bring the virus home from outside and then infect their relatives.

The virus particles from COVID don't float around in the air by themselves. They are expelled by breathing / coughing / talking and become part of larger mucosal particles -- the sizes of which are very readily captured by N95 masks.

For everyone posting here, keep in mind... When Thailand puts out weekly COVID case reports these days, the ONLY thing they're counting are COVID hospitalizations (and deaths)... not just positive COVID test results. So in short, AFAIK, ever since last fall, no one really knows the numbers or rates of COVID cases (positive tests) here in Thailand and whether they're rising or falling. Because the Thai government stopped counting and reporting them as of October 2022.

Being careless/stupid in one area isn't a justification or excuse for being careless/stupid regarding something else.

Reuters a week or so ago had a recap of the various countries requiring COVID testing and/or proof of vaccination for incoming Chinese tourists... Thailand isn't/wasn't among them: https://www.reuters.com/world/china/countries-mandate-covid-tests-china-travellers-2023-01-12/ The Reuters recap for Thailand in their Jan. 30 report: "THAILAND Thailand rescinded on Monday measures announced by its aviation regulator a day prior requiring international travellers to show proof of full COVID vaccination or letter certifying recovery from the virus before flying into the country."

Apparently only the healthy Chinese tourists come to Thailand... But the unhealthy ones obviously are heading for places like Italy and South Korea where they actually require testing, unlike Thailand. Milan reports 50% of passengers on China flights have Covid Posted on December 29, 2022 https://thainewsroom.com/2022/12/29/milan-reports-50-of-passengers-on-china-flights-have-covid/ AND 'South Korea, which began testing travellers from China on Monday, said more than a fifth of the test results were positive." https://thainewsroom.com/2023/01/05/official-stats-not-reflecting-true-impact-of-covid-19-wave-in-china-who/

And many thousands of people are still dying from COVID every month, including almost 500 per day in the U.S. alone. Per the WHO, for the past month period Jan. 9 to Feb. 5:: "The highest numbers of new 28-day deaths were reported from China (40,812 new deaths; -11%), the United States of America (15,294 new deaths; +40%), Japan (9874 new deaths; +28%), the United Kingdom (2671 new deaths; -32%), and Brazil (2566 new deaths; -37%)." https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20230208_weekly_epi_update_129.pdf?sfvrsn=d2a3077b_4&download=true

Anyone who thinks COVID isn't still taking a toll in the world obviously hasn't been paying attention, even though the key trends have been declining. Per the WHO: Weekly epidemiological update on COVID-19 - 8 February 2023 "Globally, nearly 10.5 million new cases and over 90 000 deaths were reported in the last 28 days (9 January to 5 February 2023), a decrease of 89% and 8%, respectively, compared to the previous 28 days (Figure 1, Table 1). Epidemiologic trends in the previous 28 days have been dominated by a large wave of cases and deaths in the Western Pacific Region, notably in China. As of 5 February 2023, over 754 million confirmed cases and over 6.8 million deaths have been reported globally." https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20230208_weekly_epi_update_129.pdf?sfvrsn=d2a3077b_4&download=true The WHO report above also noted that their numbers are likely UNDER-estimates, because of reduced COVID testing and reporting in many countries. Kind of like the new era of "don't ask, don't tell" in public health reporting.